SS Sussex was a cross-Channel passenger ferry, built in 1896 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR).

[1][2] Sussex was an almost exact replacement of the 1893-built Seaford, which sank in 1895 after collision with another LBSCR vessel, the cargo ship Lyon; in the light of that sinking, an extra watertight bulkhead was incorporated.

She was powered by two four-cylinder triple expansion steam engines made by Denny & Co, totalling 308 nhp or 4772 ihp, to give the required service speed of 20 knots (37 km/h).

[3] In March 1912 she came to the assistance of the stricken P&O liner Oceana, which had been in collision with the 2850-ton German-registered 4 masted steel-barque Pisagua and subsequently sank with the loss of 9 lives.

[3] Replaced by the Paris on the Newhaven - Dieppe route in 1913, she was moved to Brighton to offer long day trip excursions, in competition with the White Funnel fleet paddle steamers of Bristol-based P and A Campbell.

[11] The dead included the celebrated Spanish composer Enrique Granados, his wife Amparo,[12] a Persian prince, Bahram Mirza Sardar Mass'oud, and Irish tennis player Manliffe Goodbody.

[13] Although none of the 75 US citizens aboard were killed,[14] the incident enraged public opinion in the United States, and caused a heated diplomatic exchange between the US and German governments.